August 6, 2003
The Inhumane Society of the United States
You might be one of the millions of Americans who have received fundraising letters from the Humane Society of the United States. Seeing the furry faces of Fido and Fluffy, you might even have sent a donation, thinking you were supporting animal shelters and pet adoption. But rather than help animals in need, your money instead lined the pockets of radicals who labor for animal liberation.
Our newest ActivistCash profile examines the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) -- a sprawling institute for animal rights masquerading as an animal-welfare charity. HSUS does not run a single animal shelter, and spends a miniscule portion of its millions giving to groups that do. This intentional deception has made it the richest animal-rights group on earth.
The unsuspecting pet owner who receives frequent HSUS fundraising appeals may be shocked to learn about the group's deep connections to many other radical animal-rights and environmental groups. Here are a few selections from our profile, highlighting more disturbing facts about HSUS:
- The current goals of this misnamed "Humane Society" have nothing to do with animal shelters. The group took aim at the traditional morning meal of bacon and eggs with a tasteless "Breakfast of Cruelty" campaign. HSUS even wants to put an end to lifesaving biomedical research: as early as 1988 the group's mailings demanded that the U.S. government "eliminate altogether the use of animals as research subjects." HSUS has never budged from this extreme position.
- Even seasoned animal-rights veterans raised their eyebrows in April 2000 when the Humane Society of the United States sent John "J.P." Goodwin as its emissary on an anti-fur junket to China. Goodwin was not just any animal-rights zealot: he was an avowed member of the terrorist Animal Liberation Front (ALF). Less than a year later, HSUS identified Goodwin as their newest legislative affairs staffer.
- HSUS continually gets low scores from established charity watchdog groups. Charity Navigator recently gave the group only one star (out of four). It gave no stars to HSUS’s Earth Voice International, and one to Humane Society International and the Humane Society of the United States Wildlife Land Trust. Worth magazine gave HSUS a "D" rating for spending as much as 53 percent of its expenses on fundraising. And online rating service Give.org noted that the huge HSUS corporate family does not have an active governing board overseeing the overall structure, and criticized the organization for holding only three board meetings during 2000, two of them on the same day.
Look for more profiles of anti-consumer activist groups on our award-winning ActivistCash website.
